Frequent reading errors detract from a brilliant health-boosting device
A brilliant update to the traditional bathroom scales, the Withings Smart Body Analyzer is a huge motivational for hitting your goals. The app is brilliant for both Android and iOS and Withings has created a real reason to buy into the brand with a cohesive experience. We’d like to see improvements in the accuracy and reliability of results, with less failed readings, and the weight tracking graphs given a visual overhaul representative of the rest of the Withings app.
Pros
- An array of new data
- Tracks your progress in the app
- Looks smart in the bathroom
- Promotes good habits
Cons
- Will produce anomalous results if careless
- The graph in maps isnu2019t too pretty
- Heart rate rarely reads
- CO2 reading is unfathomable
Connected tech is transforming all the dumb
devices in your home and none needed updating more than that lying, conniving,
enemy in your bathroom: the scales.
The Withings Smart Body Analyzer brings the notion of weighing yourself into
the digital age, by connecting wirelessly to an app on your smartphone. Every
time you weigh yourself these connected scales record the data, mercilessly plotting
the results of your fitness regime, or your slow descent into statistical
obesity, in a handy graph.
Essential guide: Top Withings Pulse tips and tricks
There are no more
flimsy excuses: “I can’t remember what I weighed last time so that’s probably
about right,” won’t cut it anymore. Put on a kilo and it’s there to see,
plotted on a graph like the economic boom and bust of the gut.
Features and build
The Withings Smart Body Analyzer is beautifully designed, and as far removed from
those old bathroom scales as possible. The shiny black finish looks luxurious
and at home in any bathroom, although it is a magnet for dirt and dust.
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The set up is pretty
easy – batteries are supplied so it’s a case of yanking out the tag and pairing
the device with your smartphone via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi by pressing a button
underneath. You’ll need to have the Withings app installed on your iOS or
Android device. There’s a second button there which changes the on-screen
weight units.
Pairing with the app
is easy, and once connected you can stand on the scales and get a series of
readings. First the Smart Body Analyzer will read your weight, followed by body
fat percentage, which is an enhanced BMI reading that takes into account those
stacked out with heavier muscle. Next it will take a heart rate reading,
followed by a reading of your home’s air quality. Its final party trick is to
tell you if rain’s expected that day, with an unmistakeable umbrella graphic. Pretty
nifty.
See also: Withings Pulse O2 tips
Accuracy and
performance
The stats on offer are
excellent, and to have them plotted so you can see your progress is worth the
investment alone. It’s a huge driver to get out and make a difference, and
watching your weight balloon on the graph should be enough for anyone to get
outside and burn some calories.
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However, we do have
issues with the reliability.
Firstly, it’s
important to note that your weight changes dramatically throughout the day. You
can put on pounds just by having a large drink or a carb-heavy meal (carbohydrate
loading helps your muscles retain water which equals more weight) and doing
vigorous exercise will cause you to lose it all again. To get the best from
your Smart Body Analyzer, use it at the same time every day, and avoid abnormal
eating, drinking or exercise immediately before.
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The problem, however, is that the scales are perhaps overly sensitive and can
produce incorrect results if you’re not very careful.
If you stand a tad too
far back on the scale, you can shed three pounds in seconds. Imagine our glee
at a huge week’s loss, only to be brought back to Earth with a bump. What’s
more, this ruins your graph, so you’ll need to go back removing anomalous
results to get a graph that doesn’t resemble an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the
Richter scale.
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Like the Withings
Pulse O2, the heart rate monitoring was a complete waste of time, registering
our pathetic pulses just once out of around 20 tries. Conversely, the CO2 air
quality analysis seemed to work, but the on-screen read out was so confusing we
literally had no idea what it meant.
We took to shimmying
around on the scales trying to make it register our heaviest result, and then
standing like a statue to have it saved – a bizarre twist of logic, and not one
that’s good for the ego.
It may sound like
we’re hating on the Withings smart scales, but we’re not. It’s genuinely
excellent, but you have to be very careful with your readings.
Withings Smart Body
Analyzer: App
We’re big fans of the
app, which is available for iOS and Android. Unlike some competitors, the
Android app hasn’t had its features completely culled, making it one of the
best in the business.
The Withings app is a
one-stop-shop for all its products, so if you have the Pulse O2 fitness band and/or
Withings blood pressure monitor, you can collate everything together. It’s a
strong proposition.
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All the stats from the
scales are recorded together on a line graph, but it could be presented a
little more visually. The lines are extremely thin and it won’t become a really
usable graph until you’ve been using it a few months. We’d also advise not
using the scales more than once a week, or you’ll get the aforementioned
seismic activity reading.
